


Landlord

by izayoi_no_mikoto



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 09:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16473185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/pseuds/izayoi_no_mikoto
Summary: Bakura Ryou is not master of his own body.





	Landlord

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saintlysinner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintlysinner/gifts).



[Part 1: Before]

Sometimes, Ryou forgets what it's like to have control of his own body.

He wakes up standing in his kitchen, his hair a tangled mess and flecks of crimson trapped beneath his fingernails.  The sun is high in the sky, and when he steps forward, his limbs go akimbo and the floor bucks and writhes beneath him, and he stumbles and has to cling to the countertop just to stay on his feet.

He comes to and he's standing in a dark alley, dank and grim and disgusting, the stench of rotten rubbish filling his nostrils and almost overwhelming the faint tang of copper.  He leans against the grungy wall of the building, his head spinning and his eyes swimming, and if he focuses on standing up, he can pretend there isn't a faint outline slumped on the concrete behind him.

He opens his eyes and he's in school, standing at the blackboard and solving an algebra equation in front of the class, and he stares at the writing on the board, _x=_ , no answer, and realizes that he has no idea how he got there.  The chalk slips from his limp fingers as he sways on his feet and teeters straight into the wall, and as the entire class gasps and whispers, he mutters something about feeling dizzy and going to the nurse's office, and he stumbles out of the classroom with dozens of gazes following him.  He can feel one pair of eyes in particular, older than ages and merciless as the gods, that pierce him through and know everything and refuse to, or perhaps cannot, save him.

Bakura Ryou is a stranger in his own life, a bystander in his own story.  He is the marionette whose arms and legs jump every time the master puppeteer tugs the wires.  He is the landlord who has leased out his home to the devil, and though he is the rightful owner, he knows, deep down, that it has been warped and mutilated by the man living in it, and even if Ryou moves back in one day, it will never, ever be the same.

* * *

[Part 2: After]

Ryou wakes up in his own bed, now.

Every morning, his eyes snap open and he stares at the ceiling, his chest tight and his hands clenched into fists.  He lies there, breathless and motionless, as he categorizes the events of the night before and searches his memories for the tiniest gap, the slightest inconsistency.

There is none.  There never is, nowadays.  But when Ryou gets up out of bed, he still stumbles, his knees threatening to buckle, his vision swerving, his balance torn to shreds.

He is alone in his own body, now.  He is alone in his own heart, in his own mind, in his own soul.  But his soul is not his alone, nor is his mind, nor his heart, nor his body.  His entire existence was a battleground, and it is scarred by shrapnel, gutted by strafing, divided by chain link fence and bound by barbed wire.  He emerged the victor, but the shadows and ghosts have followed him home, and he shares his life with them, now.

Every night, Ryou lays his head down on his pillow and stares at the wall until his vision blurs with exhaustion.  Only when he cannot fight back sleep any longer do his eyelids flutter shut, and the shadows and the ghosts take their due.  He is alone, now, and his body is his.  But as he loses consciousness, he can hear, in some distant, deep, sealed-off corner of his mind, an echo of a familiar laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> To saintlysinner: I hope you have a wonderful Trick or Treat Exchange!


End file.
